Bella Gelateria – Charity Promotion

Restaurant: Bella Gelateria
Cuisine: Gelato/Ice Cream/Desserts
Last visited: September 17, 2010
Location: Vancouver, BC (Downtown)
Address: 1001 W Cordova St (Corner of Burrard and Cordova)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 6
Service: n/a
Ambiance: 4.5
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Best gelato in Vancouver
• Old-world hand crafted gelato
• Authentic & traditional REAL gelato
• Local/organic ingredients
• All natural, no preservatives
• Nuts and lemons imported from Italy
• Owner/Maestro Gelatiere: James Coleridge
• Daily/Weekly/Seasonal flavours
• 6 changing flavours everyday
• Made fresh daily
• Traditional gelato is very soft and melts fast – not frozen hard
• NO WHOLESALE! – Good thing! (To ensure quality control)
• Water-based chocolate flavours – GOOD thing!
• Special tasting event nights
• Sun-Thurs 11am-10pm
• Fri-Sat 11am-11pm

**Recommendations: EVERYTHING! My favourites are any of the chocolates, yogurt, fior di late, lavender, pistachio, almond, matcha, fresh fruit sorbet: Italian Sorrento Lemon, pineapple. Hint: Try dark chocolate gelato with caramel gelato and ask James (owner) to add a sprinkle of coarse salt in it. Awesome! It’s like a salted caramel with chocolate, but in gelato form!

I’m writing about Bella Gelateria again to promote this awesome charity event. Mark your calenders! On September 22, visit GoodNews.com to purchase a one flavour cup of gelato (from Bella Gelateria) for only $1. The entire $1 will be donated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank!

The photo is an image taken from my last post! 🙂

I wrote about Bella Gelataria when it first opened (see my post here) and since then I have made several trips back to indulge in all the constantly changing flavours. I am seriously addicted to this gelato (so are many others) and I still think it’s the best gelato in Vancouver, BC. I’m not just saying that because I know the owner now too. Just try it for yourself! Everything tastes like exactly what it is, in it’s purest form. He even started making flavours like cinnamon, cucumber, lavender and beer flavoured gelato. There’s also event nights where you can sample all his new creations!

James, the owner and maestro gelatiere, is now a friend of mine as it’s obvious that I am a huge fan of his gelato; therefore I cannot comment on the service. However ask anyone and he treats everyone the same. He’ll tell you all about how Bella Gelateria came to be and you can sample the flavours as he tells you his story. He’s the Willy Wonka of Vancouver for gelato! It’s like being in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! I love it!

Here’s what’s coming to Bella Gelateria soon! Yes! Crepes and waffles WITH gelato!

On the table:

BC Pear Sorbetto & Fig & Walnut Gelato

• $5.95
• I feel like a chef every time I come in here! Thinking of the perfect flavour combination is always a hard task I’m ready to take on. The more creative the better and I was so excited about this combination of BC pear sorbet and fig & walnut gelato!
• I obviously loved it, but the fig and walnut overpowered my pear sorbet a bit.
• The BC pear sorbetto is awesome! It tastes like frozen real pear puree and there’s pieces of pear throughout. It has a grainy texture of a real pear and it’s delicious!
• The fig and walnut gelato was awesome with lots of walnut pieces throughout. You can taste the seeds of the black mission figs and it’s a very thick and creamy gelato considering the ingredients. It’s not too sweet though and just very rich and buttery.

**Matcha & Black Sesame Gelato

• $5.95
• This was awesome! I don’t like black sesame all that much and I loved this one! I don’t even like black sesame ice cream that much and I still liked this one. It was so rich and nutty and just so creamy and intense in flavour. I loved it!
• The combination of black sesame with the matcha gelato (organic Japanese green tea) is just ultra nutty.
• The reason why it looks like it’s melting fast (which it does) is because James doesn’t use this chemical/additive called E__?__ or B__?__. Once you add that chemical the gelato will freeze and not be creamy. Real authentic Italian gelato is supposed to be enjoyed soft like this for optimal flavour and taste.
• An even better combination was eating matcha and black sesame with white chocolate gelato!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread – 3.5/6

• $2.68 (This was complimentary – as always no expectations to say positive stuff)
• Bella Gelateria started offering a small selection of baked goods which are out sourced from a local bakery.
• It’s not the best banana bread I’ve had, but the chocolate chip part was the highlight. The chocolate was quite spectacular and it wasn’t waxy at all, but melts in your mouth. The bread itself could have been more moist and could have used more bananas for more banana flavour.
• The best part was the crust or topping part. It was almost like the crust of a brownie and it was delicious!

• I was temped to order a vanilla or chocolate gelato to enjoy this chocolate chip banana bread with but my friends stopped me from getting diabetes.
• I ended up topping one cube with my last bite of pear sorbet… not exactly the right flavour, but the concept was there… next time! Who am I kidding? Ice cream is good on everything! Rolled in bread – see here… and sometimes even served on salad… – see here.

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